Jackie Bezos

Jacklyn Bezos (, formerly Jorgensen; December 29, 1946 – August 14, 2025) was an American businesswoman. She was the mother of Jeff and Mark Bezos. She provided the initial investment to launch Amazon.com and was a philanthropist as co-founder and president of the Bezos Family Foundation.

Early life Jacklyn Bezos was born as Jacklyn Gise in Washington, D.C., on December 29, 1946, and attended high school in Albuquerque. Country singer George Strait is a second cousin of hers.

In high school, Jacklyn dated unicyclist Ted Jorgensen. She became pregnant in 1963 when Jorgensen was 18 and she was 16, shortly before they got married in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. They had a second ceremony in the United States on July 19 the same year. They named the child Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen at birth. Her high school sought to block her from graduating, but later relented, after banning her from socializing with other students.

Jacklyn's father paid for Jorgensen's school fees, Jacklyn left Jorgensen to live with her parents, filing for divorce in June 1965 when Jeff was seventeen months old. The three moved to Houston, Texas.

Twenty years after starting, Jacklyn graduated from Saint Elizabeth University at the age of 40. giving them both 6% equity. Later they relocated to Florida. and a major donor to, the Bezos Family Foundation. Through the foundation, they donated $710.5 million to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. For more than 20 years, Jacklyn Bezos served as president of the foundation, before this position was handed over to John E. Deasy in 2023.

Later life and death In 2020, Bezos was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurological disorder. She continued to be involved with philanthropic work through the Bezos Family Foundation, focusing on early learning programs such as Vroom and the Bezos Scholars Program, as well as funding medical research and community healthcare initiatives, including large-scale donations to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle to advance immunotherapy treatments.

Bezos died at her home in Miami on August 14, 2025, at the age of 78.